“If we find out they’re not partners, and if we find out they’re working against us, then we all ought to have a conversation as taxpayers about whether our dollars should be used for people who are not working to reduce gun violence.” That’s the threat issued by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (above) against gun and ammo makers who don’t tow the line laid down by The Mayors Against Illegal Guns. minnesota.publicradio.org reports that “Rybak told members of the City Council’s Public Safety and Civil Rights Committee that he and mayors from approximately 60 cities are taking a closer look at the companies that manufacture the guns and ammunition that cities buy for police officers . . .

He said over the past eight years the city has spent nearly $800,000 on guns and ammunition. Rybak, who supports stricter gun control laws, wants to work with firearms manufacturers to reduce gun-related crime and violence. He wants to know if those companies also are lobbying against tighter gun laws . . .

Rybak did not propose specific changes to city laws or purchasing rules, but said any changes would have to be examined by the city attorney. There are city ordinances and state laws which regulate procurement of goods and services, according to City Attorney Susan Segal.

“The city can always set reasonable specifications for purchases that it’s making,” Segal said. “The question is what is included in those specifications.”

So this is how they do it, eh? Manipulate the levers of power to undermine the Constitution that they’re sworn to protect? Thugs. And it looks like the Gun-Grabber-in-Chief may be on board, as well.

Rybak said he mentioned this approach to President Barack Obama during a recent visit to Washington, DC. He said Obama and his staff were delighted by the idea.

Obama plans to speak in Minneapolis on Monday to promote his plan to reduce gun violence.

This is a re-hash of the Clinton Administration threat, spearheaded by then-HUD Secretary and now governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, to do the same with federal agencies. Despite a successful court action by NSSF to counter the threat at the time, the idea was kicked up again in 2010 by disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who suggested that gun makers must cease and desist the sale of ALL semi-automatic firearms to escape this punishment.

The battle to defend and extend Americans’ Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms continues.

About Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the Publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

Tiger by the tail? Who has control over who? If the gun / ammo manufacturers refuse to sell to cities whose mayors are members of MAIG, etc., then it seems that they could create a big problem for these cities.

Thank you! I wish the NSSF would organize the manufactures and stop sales to cities and states that don’t support the 2nd. Then lets see what they have to say when their personal security detail runs out of ammo,parts and service.

Only 60 cities? Many officers purchase their own equipment? I think the manufacturers can find the sales with other departments and the civilian market.

However if manufacturers refuse to sell to a department that wants to buy based on anti-2A city policy… then the city is SOL. The stink of it is officers who want to do their jobs would then be neutered by their city’s policy… but they could still buy privately (Poor NYS cops with 7 rounds, better than nothing though).

Most officer’s I know have or plan to switch to personally owned firearms just for the simple fact they choose it to fit them and they have greater control, care, and confidence in and over them.

If the Banks can refuse business of Gun dealer and manufactures , then why can’t the distributors dictate who gets guns and ammo? Fireworks are already regulated this way, and most can’t ship anything worth while to California,,,,so now we discriminate for safty of our children, lets see them find fault with that…

Rybak is an IDIOT. It’s very clear that they need the gun makers MUCH MORE than the gun makers need them. Most of the US gun makers are privately held. And, Ruger and S&W might as well be – they are so successful. They have a bunch of sources for capital. Do the cities have as many sources for arms, ammo and parts? I don’t think so. I’d LOVE to see this turn around and BITE them. It couldn’t happen to nicer people! They are so used to throwing their weight around they forget when they are out of their league.

What an idiot. IT would not take long for the various arms and ammo manufacturers to reciprocate. And the brief drop in sales tothe LEO market would be more than made up for by sales to non-LEO purchasers. Maybe this guy missed the memo about cutting off the nose to spite the face, or killing the golden goose.

Good, let them do it, more ammo for the rest of us. Then we boycott the companies that play along and see which ones go under first. I think the People of the Gun will keep arms manufactures in business better than government. Then we can watch these traitors fall into their own trap as their supply of arms and ammo dries up.

+1
The gun industry needs to remember the example of the tobacco industry. They can work together and fight this or they can fight it separately and lose big. Not that I’m a big tobacco fan but I thought that when Florida bought the first suit against the tobacco companies, those companies should have banded together and stopped shipping all tobacco products to FL. This would have sent a message to the other states as well. How long would it have taken for the politicians to cave amidst the howls of the smokers with nicoteen withdrawal? In this case, the gun industry should stop shipping products to State and Local agencies until the PoPo start exerting pressure on the politicians to stop with the nonsense. No guns, no gun parts, no ammo, no assessories, no billy clubs. Time for hardball.

Sure he would. And as someone who lives by Minneapolis, this idea terrifies me. Especially given the recent trend back toward the “Murderapolis” of yesteryear. Instead of Rybak threatening to boycott gun manufacturers who lobby against “common sense gun control” (read: victim disarmament), which should be pretty much all of them, he should be trying to ensure his officer’s have every tool in their arsenal they need to protect themselves and the public.

You want my .02? It’s the manufacturers who should be refusing to do business with MAIG mayors who want to destroy their livelihood.

Federal has a huge ammunition factory in Anoka, MN. According to Wiki (grain of salt) the plant employees 1500 people. Probably also explains why ammunition is still available in Minneapolis and surrounding areas.

For the uninformed, Anoka is a suburb of Minneapolis. (although, on 20 below night, suburb is probably a little generous)

I live right across the street from ATK in Anoka (I can see them out my window), and no, there isn’t any ammunition here. I haven’t seen federal 9mm or 22lr in a month. I’d imagine they are feeding the military more than us poor citizens here. Good thing I have Bachmann as my Congressional Rep – she’s good on guns.

Actually, capitalism is morally neutral. It’s not strictly a way to maximize money-wages, but a system in which everyone seeks to satisfy their ends. In a ‘capitalist’ society, those who have the moral end of equal access to firearms will refuse to sell to the government. Those who have the end of making money and the belief that angering private buyers will get them less money will not sell to these governments. Free enterprise allows to to act morally – or not – as you will.

If you live in the US and are under 100 years of age you have never seen institutionalized capitalism. Never. You may have traded baseball cards here and there as a kid, or maybe made someone a a dining room table in exchange for 60 feet of copper pipe and a half pig, but personal capitalist interactions are the exception to the corporatist rule. And corporatism is corporate fascism, not capitalism. Massively overpowered corporations as they exist at the behest of government today would not be capable of existing under a capitalist system. They would collapse under their own dead weight as the government has been to “prevent” by running this country into the ground so the donors and friends of politicians can keep their bonuses.

Ok, you own gun company A. You might lose the 800,000 over eight year that the city gives you for goods and services. But how many millions of dollars from pissed off gun owners are you going to lose for knuckling under to the grabber mayors?

All gun and ammo companies, look what’s happening to CTD for just price gouging and caving on EBR’s. Do you want that in your future?

Let the cities that support this anti business arm twisting make their own guns and ammo. See how long they last without resupply.

Let’s hope that manufacturers remember the Clinton era example of then British held S&W. I think there would be more swift and pronounced reaction today considering the changes in the internet over the years.

Exactly. The financial damage these companies would suffer at the hands of Joe and Jane Gunowner if they cooperate with civilian disarmament proposals is orders of magnitude worse than anything these cities can inflict on them. Just ask Smith & Wesson’s former owners.

The Progressive/Liberal agenda is based on what they believe is best for you…not necessarily for themselves, but for you-the masses.

They can not win approval for their programs by the ballot box.

For years they have depended on activist judges who do not interpret the law in relation to what the Constitution allows but rather, what the judges “feel” the law should be.

Even that has not worked, or at least not worked fast enough, so now they bludgeon corporations who manufacture and sell legal products with tactics that has filled our jails when the Mafia tries them.

Since they can not win in the court of popular approval for their ideas, they resort to thug tactics to disarm the masses….while keeping their own protective details and their own weapons.

If you live in MN, contact your state senator and congress critter and let them know that this sort of legislative bullying is completely unacceptable. Consider attending the committee hearings next week if you can. If you live elsewhere, make your critters aware that this sort of jackassery is not acceptable in your state.

I don’t know how much state senators can help, but we Minneapolitans can be sure to tell Rybak where to go when he announces his next candidacy (he’s a lame duck by choice right now). Fortunately, the next mayoral election will be ranked choice, so maybe we can get a more mainstream candidate elected.

tell your marketing people this is one loyal customer who will be buying more from you as a result. it would be nice to hear something strongly worded in responce to that nitwit ryback next door but coming from the midwest myself sometimes its best to say nothing if you cant say something good about someone…

If I were a gun or ammo manufacturer, I would simply refuse to sell to the MAIG city’s. Of course, I would also revoke the distributor rights of any distributor caught selling to those cities as well. Finally, any other city caught as a middle man for a MAIG city would be black listed as well.

“I say the ammo companies should play hardball, as the market demand is on their side.” You could say that. Ive been actively trying to hunt down ammo for the past month and a half. Almost nothing to be had in any handgun caliber, zero .223, and zero 22lr. I think consumer demand right now is enough to keep them occupied for the rest of the year at the minimum.

So this genius is advocating for business to work against their self interest and is advocating for potentially violating procurement laws. This guy is asking for trouble. Thanks for showing you are the scum you are.

I guess no one told them that police sales are a trivial part of most gun companies revenue. Not to mention police departments with their limited budgets try to nickle and dime manufacturers thereby reducing the profit margin. Gun companies make FAR more money selling their wares to individuals.

I suspect most, if not all, gun companies will tell these 60 moronic mayors to go pound sand.

Based on market segment info published by IBISWorld which is the world’s largest independent publisher of U.S. industry research and covers 700 different market segments. it would appear that Small Arms and Small Arms ammunition is about a $6.2B market when military only weapons and ammunition is netted out of the $11.7B total market that small arms is included in.

The breakout by customer segment is 60% citizens, 25% LEO, 15% military. Since only the military buys military only weapons and ammo that means that the preponderance of small arms and ammo is bought by citizens with a ratio of exceeding 4 to 1. The balance between ammo and arms is roughly 50-50.

Secondly the largest gun manufacturers and ammo manufacturers are not aligned in such a way as to make the Scumberg mayoral threats very credible. The largest gun manufacturers in the industry are Ruger, S&W, and Freedom Arms. With only Freedom Arms providing ammunition. While ammo manufacturing is concentrated in a few companies anyone of which caved would automatically stand to lose far more than they gain from a few corrupt big city LE agencies. How many rounds do NYC cops shoot during training with anyway based on their performance at the Empire State Building shooting.

As for gun manufacturers Ruger sells very few firearms to LE and S&W trails Glock by a long shot with their margins probably being highest on revolvers that are not bought by LE. Freedom Arms probably still sells way more shotguns and long arms to citizens than LE. Premium manufacturers like Sig who sell to both LE and citizens probably have more to lose if they PO America’s gun owners and risk not being able to sell a large inventory of MSRP $2500 P210s to the SIG addicted (guilty as charged).

The small arms companies likely to knuckle under would be those highly dependent on government business in the US like Colt (overpriced), H&K (they hate you anyway), Glock (60% of LE own Glocks), Beretta-Benelli (M9 & M4), FNH USA (too bad about Browning and Winchester if they fold). Also the last time I checked none of these government tit suckers sell much if any of their products through the US’s largest gun seller Walmart. I think anyone of the above would cave except they risk so much to sell so little to MAIG agencies. For instance Sig would probably love to eat H&K’s (because you suck and they hate you) lunch with their next gen SMG with a large agency like the Texas DPS or other Red State agency.

Also there are still lots of Red States and cities that will have nothing to do with this type of extortion so appeasers can’t be sure that they won’t lose even more than they win by caving.

Finally they know all to well what happened to S&W and Ruger who caved to Clinton as recounted in the WashPo article.

“When Smith & Wesson struck a deal with the Clinton administration in 2000, agreeing to a long list of changes to its products and business practices—including limiting the size of magazines for its semi-automatic weapons and avoiding dealers who sold a disproportionate number of guns later used in crimes—the gun lobby howled. It led a boycott of Smith & Wesson that nearly killed the company; in a span of just two years, the number of guns manufactured by Smith & Wesson fell by 44 percent. “They just beat the crap out of Smith & Wesson for a while, then let them back in,” says Diaz. Colt Firearms and Sturm, Ruger have been similarly punished for crimes against the Second Amendment.”

I hope my analysis is right but any manufacturer that caves will be poison to me, including my beloved SIG if they surrender to the gun banners.

I think it would be poetic justice if the gun and ammo makers could come together and agree not to sell guns or ammo to those police departments that make public anti-gun statements. It would hopefully force them to shut their traps about politics and be the public servants they are supposed to be.

Gotta stop thinking logically. As a Chicago resident its painfully obvious gun control does not work. 40 deaths this year already and its not even February yet. Yet we have some of the strictest gun control laws. Our little ballerina rahm is trying to force banks to stop dealing with gun manufacturers in our state. This is straight up Mafia tactics. It doesn’t matter to them as long as they get what they want.

Oh no, that would be wrong. To punish some poor, disadvantaged yute over the oatmeal being cold and sending him/her into a murderous fit. Or, whatever reason they can come up with to blame it on everybody else.

He talks as if somebody is working to INCREASE gun violence! Every sane person wants to decrease gun violence. What he’s really saying is “do it MY way or else.” If you don’t mind, could you just FOAD!

I would welcome a boycott. As an LEO, I know that we get decent deals on guns and ammo. We burn about 1,000 rounds of ammo per officer per year. Due to liability reasons, reloading is essentially non-existent in the LEO community. If Remington, Winchester, or Federal told us to pound sand due to an anti-2A message, it would start making things pretty simple. Being a gun guy, I’ve purchased the exact same ammo our department uses, as well as stuff that I believe is better.

Manufacturers don’t make tons of cash from police agencies, it’s more of an image and marketing deal. A lot of citizens would be ecstatic to purchase 5.56 at .75 a round. Citizens and off-duty LEOs are a huge market. Let the mayors and politicians blabber, and see how well that goes.

Same ammo. Premium hollow points for targets. There occasionally frangible ammo, but not often. Those aren’t my ideas – I’d like a bunch of cheap ammo and tons of practice with .22 LR, but to no avail.

I’m sure that all the regular gun owners combined buy a lot more guns and ammo than all the police dept. in the entire country. Now if they boycott the companies who sell to law abiding citizens and all these companies decide they no longer need them, then only citizens and criminals will be armed. If they decide to only do business with the cops, their competition will make a fortune and they’ll go broke like the U.S. Postal Service.

Yup. His $100k a year is nothing compared to civilian sales. Plus he may not be familiar with the sort of backlash Ruger, Colt and Smith & Wesson experienced when they tried to placate politicians. I doubt any manufacturer is willing to test those waters again.

When The People’s Republic of Kalifornia decided that subjects…I mean citizens, could not be trusted with a Barrett .50 rifle, Barrett ceased doing business with any PRK law enforcement agency. Last I saw Barrett is still in business.

As many of y’all know, back in 90’s or early 2000’s, the CEO of Barrett Rifles denied sales/re-supply/service to ALL Californian govt agencies/agents after LAPD Commish Bratton paraded one of his rifles on TV to push for a state-wide .50cal ban.

High time ALL guns/ammo/component/accessories manufacturers and tactical training companies did the same.

Frankly, the biggest push NSSF & NRA could’ve done at the recent SHOT show WAS to get all the guns/ammo/components/accessories manufacturers and tactical trainers, industry titans, both big & small, together, and pledge to invoke the ‘Ronnie Barrett Option’ vs. ANY & ALL States who push for AWB ban or any other 2A limitation.

Who’s the bigger market? The commercial sales to 150 MILLION gunowners? Or, a TINY 2 million-ish ‘customers’ with GSA Fed contracts and State govt COMBINED market? And no, I’m not talking about F35 or ICBM/submarines/carriers contracts, etc.

But hey, who knows? Stranger things have happened: never thought I’d see the day that someone like Ronnie Barrett would deny LAPD and all Californian govt agencies. Granted, he’s getting plenty off of Fed Gvt military contracts; be that as it may, for someone of Ronnie’s status, within the industry, to take such a bold stance, is a significant symbolic and economic gesture.

Perhaps soon enough, most of 2A industry will finally see the light and realize that their entire economic livelihood will be threatened with any further 2A infringements, if they LET these sociopathic lunatic political monkeys to continue to run amok.

One can only hope…

Regardless, it’s important to always remember that the Anti-gunners have something abstract to ‘gain:’ unfulfilled, unrealistic HOPE of emotional ‘safety.’

But, clearly, we gun owners have something very tangible, very real physical items to lose.

And as with all things human, you’ll always fight more to avoid pain/fear of losing something that you already have that you can physically touch and identify, than to fight to ‘gain’ some abstract emotion.

Obviously, when one is threatened with losing something tangible, physical, something as concrete a private property can get, ie our guns, you’ll protect it more, because you have a visceral, physical ‘thing’ that someone else is threatening to take away from you.

That reality alone, is why in the end, they’ll lose, and we’ll win, and maintain our rights. IMO

Let them buy their ammo and firearms from China. More US made for the rest of us. Or, simply disarm the police/security forces of the government, Fed, State, and Local. Gun Free Zones start with them, all you got to have is faith. Set an example dip-wad. Whose army do you have to have all that military weaponry to defend yourselves against?

I rather hope the MAIG group goes through with this. Texas could use more manufacturing jobs, when these companies decide to move operations and HQ to a free state.

Pretty sure the Texas government would find that federal bans don’t apply one whit to guns and ammo manufactured within Texas, sold and distributed only within Texas, and used only in Texas. God knows we could use some ammo availability here in the Lone Star State.

So what I heard the mayor say is, “hey gun manufacturers, are you actively lobbying for laws that would reduce the types of product you could sell as well as reduce the number of people who could buy your product? Don’t defend your answer with some sort of valid constitutionality argument, just answer the question!”

Any gun or ammo manufacturer that succumbs to this bullying won’t get a dime from me or my family for the remainder of my lifetime. In return, I will boycott these cities whenever possible. I already cancelled a trip to Chicago.

In the past, I’ve generally avoided transfers through NY airports when traveling from CA to Europe.

I just added a rule to my corporate travel profile that prevents our agency from booking any of my flights with a stopover in NY without my express permission. Which will be forthcoming when NY repeals the SAFE act, though I didn’t tell the travel folks that.

If they can’t treat US citizens with respect, between fscking over the residents of their own state AND arresting people in transit for having legally checked firearms in their luggage, they’re bloody well not getting any of my transit fees or airport concession spending.

If the manufacturers “get together” and decide to tell them to FOAD, the next step will be prosecuting the mfgs for “collusion” or “price fixing” or some new crap they just make up.
It would be great if the mfgs would tell them to piss off, but I doubt it’ll happen.

Procedural disobedience is a wonderful thing, no written letter giving directions to do so, word of mouth, accidental shipments or misplaced shipments, the more expensive version, twice as long as needed, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc wont take long to get the point across when the cops start running out of bullets!

Then again, the act of that Mayor falls under the Hobbs Act, named after Congressman Sam Hobbs (D-AL) and codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1951, is a U.S. federal law enacted in 1946 that prohibits actual, attempted, or contemplated robbery or extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce.

Section 1951 also proscribes conspiracy to commit robbery or extortion without reference to the conspiracy statute at 18 U.S.C. § 371. Although the Hobbs Act was enacted as a statute to combat racketeering in labor-management disputes, the statute is frequently used in connection with cases involving public corruption, commercial disputes, and corruption directed at members of labor unions.

The Hobbs Act criminalizes both robbery and extortion. Whereas robbery is the taking of another’s property without his or her consent, “traditional” extortion occurs when a person wrongfully uses force, the threat of force, or fear to obtain a recognized property right from another person without that person’s consent.

In interpreting the Hobbs Act, the Supreme Court has held that the statute employs the fullest extent of federal authority under the Commerce Clause. Thus, the lower federal courts have recognized that an actual effect on commerce is sufficient to satisfy the federal jurisdictional element even if it is slight or de minimis.

Some small thing overlooked. Cities run short of ammo and go to Obama. Obama gets his AG to start an eminent domain case against the manufacturer of what the cops need. To recoup the cost the feds would enact a safety tax for all to pay and the cops get free ammo and guns at our expense. Besides that the company is now government run with more federal SEIU overpaid employees. I wouldn’t put it past them to do this.

Just Compensation The last element set forth in the Fifth Amendment mandates that the amount of compensation awarded when property is seized or damaged through condemnation must be fair to the public as well as to the property owner (Searl v. School District No. 2 of Lake County, 133 U.S. 553, 10 S. Ct. 374, 33 L. Ed. 740 [1890]). Because no precise formula for determining it exists, just compensation is the subject of frequent litigation.

The courts tend to emphasize the rights of the property owner in eminent domain proceedings. The owner usually has not initiated the action but has been brought into the litigation because his or her property is needed for public use. The owner must participate in the proceedings, which can impose an emotional and financial burden.

The measure of damages is often the fair market value of the property that is harmed or taken for public use. The market value is commonly defined as the price that reasonably could have resulted from negotiations between an owner who was willing to sell it and a purchaser who wanted to buy it. The value of real property is assessed based on the uses to which it reasonably can be put. Elements for consideration include the history and general character of the area, the adaptability of the land for future buildings, and the use intended for the property after its taking.

Hence the manufacturer could force the govt. to buy at current market value, $2,500 for an AR-15, $100 for a 30 rnd magazine, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc….as this is not a contractual agreement but a litigation and there is no civil or legal liability to accept a forced undervalue of your product even though it is the govt.

But if they do such a thing, then they have taken the gloves off and the civil war would start in the very near future. Hope they got big enough balls to finish what they start if they do!

That picture shows a bunch of constipated wimpy little people. The useless Mayor and Police Chief of Milwaukee to hizonner’s left. They would trample over anything constitutional to advance their own careers. Could not get a real job……

I’d like to see them slinging 20 pounds of tools running 8″ conduit in an eight foot deep trench in the middle of a Phoenix summer. They’re a bunch of soft handed pussies that would crumple doing a real job.

Do you think somebody would be crazy enough to take the law into their own hands regarding these treasonous Mayors? I worry about their safety if someone feels that they are undermining the constitution.

There is (a reason to feel pride in America), it is shown in our fight against (or so it feels) overwhelming odds.
Aint that the definition of exceptional.
Never stop, my friend (if only to not give the PIGS the satisfaction).

Private sales dwarf sales to police agencies and most companies don’t make the weapons the police buy in any number.. Without a civilian market most firearms and ammunition manufactures will go out of business. They are going to yawn and continue with business as usual. I could see Glock caving into the threat because of their large volume of government sales but beyond that it’s an empty threat. I am sure Springfield Armory would be happy to see a civilian boycott of Glock.